Chinese University of Hong Kong: Dennis Lo

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) on Friday unanimously approved the appointment of Dennis Lo as vice chancellor and president for a period of five years, effective Jan. 8, 2025. Lo is a pioneer in liquid biopsy and noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT). He joined CUHK in 1997, the same year he reported the presence of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma, laying the groundwork for NIPT. He is currently director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Science and a professor of medicine and chemical pathology at CUHK. He is also the associate dean (research) of the CUHK faculty of medicine.

In 2023, Lo helped form Insighta, a joint venture with genomic testing firm Prenetics that is developing multi-cancer screening tests. In 2012, he founded Cirina to develop noninvasive tests for early cancer screening (Cirina later became a part of Grail). Lo later cofounded Hong Kong-based startup Take2 Health, which licensed intellectual property back from Grail to develop a noninvasive early detection test for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Lo received a BA degree from the University of Cambridge and holds PhD and MD degrees from the University of Oxford.